A RICH MESA SOMEWHERE.

911

They had already taken steps to secure this new locality before the Arizona swindle was exposed, and had it not been for the sudden death of a gentleman connected with the negotiations, the business would have been completed ere this. The negotiations were hindered by his death, and it may be months before they are completed; but you can cer tainly look for a revelation some time in 1873 of great interest concerning diamond fields of wonderful wealth."

"Why," I asked, "did not the Arizona swindlers get up their speculation on the real diamond fields of which you speak? They could have made more money, and avoided the stigma of dishonesty which they must bear as long as they live."

"Simply because the swindle was much the easier thing. The real fields are practically inaccessible, except to a large and well-armed party, and under the sanction of another gov ernment than our own. A concession to hold and work them must be obtained, and this would take a long time. I will say this and no more that they are north of the Isthmus of Darien, and are not in the United States. You may guess about their locality as much as you like, but for the present I can say nothing more. You see it was much easier to get up an excitement about Arizona or Colorado, and turn it into money, than to wait and work on the genuine enterprise. Men are not generally inclined to dishonesty unless they can make something by it."

So endeth what I have to say about the diamond swindle. Some other transactions of a kindred sort have come to my knowledge, and they may properly be told in this connection. A few years ago I was interested in the study of crystalliza tions, and made some experiments in the laboratory of a chemical friend. We tried a long time to get up rubies and sapphires, and followed the processes of Ebelman and Gaudin as closely as possible. Artificial crystals of alumina have been produced, but they have always been so small as to require a microscope for their discovery, and any attempt to color them has failed. In the course of our experiment we

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COUNTERFEIT SAPPHIRES.

came in contact with a scientific gentleman of considerable repute. He assisted us in some of our efforts, but we never succeeded in them, not even producing the smallest crystal. Finally, we gave up the enterprise, and turned our attention to something else.

Three or four months later I met this scientist, Professor Blank, in the corridor of the Astor House. He was delighted to see me, and said he had called two or three times on business of importance, which he could only explain at his rooms. We made an appointment for that evening, and he went

away.

I was on hand at the appointed hour, and, after carefully locking the door, the professor became confidential.

"You remember your experiments to produce sapphires," he said, "and you also remember that I took great interest in them. When you were disheartened and gave up, I did not abandon hope, and at last I have been rewarded. I have produced a perfect sapphire by following another process from yours. You used alumina and boracic acid; I have been using the same things, but have added another acid, and an oxide that gives the color to the stone at the same time that it facilitates the crystallization. Here is the result."

As he spoke he opened a table drawer, and from a small box produced three beautiful stones. Apparently they were sapphires of correct shape, color, and density, and worth a great deal of money. They reflected the gas light, and for a short time I saw a fortune before me. When I had examined them thoroughly and placed them on the table, the professor continued: "Now, these are sapphires made in my labora tory just as Nature has made them in hers. They are of the same material as the natural sapphire, and a man can sell them for genuine stones and not be guilty of any fraud."

I assented to his proposition.

"Here is a fortune in my secret; but to make the secret available, it is necessary to proceed with great caution. The instant it is known or suspected that the stones are made by an artificial process, the market will be ruined. I have

A MAGNIFICENT SCHEME.

913

thought the whole thing over, and determined upon a plan. We will form a small company, the fewer men in it the better, and fit up a laboratory in connection with a tin shop, or some thing of the sort. The shop will be a blind to prevent suspicion, and the laboratory can be in the rear, where we will pretend to have a new process for soldering tin. When the stones are made, we can put them on the market slowly, and sell them just fast enough to prevent getting up a panic."

He went on with the details of his scheme, which was plausible enough, only it was a trifle too large. Had he been an adventurer, I should have suspected him at once; but here was a scientific gentleman, whose name was on the title page of a book that had been received as an authority, and, so far as I knew, his reputation was without blemish. I was captivated by the brilliancy of the enterprise, and readily consented to join him and bring the matter to the attention of some of my friends. He wanted about twenty thousand dollars for a share in the secret, and as capital wherewith to set up and stock his proposed laboratory. To wind up the evening and leave me fully convinced, he opened a crucible, which, he averred, he had that afternoon taken from the furnace and laid away to cool. From the black mass of slag at the bottom he extracted a couple of sapphires, smaller than the ones he had previously shown me, but as perfect in every way as the others. My mind was nearly but not quite made up. I asked the privilege of taking one of these latest sapphires, and also one of the others, to show to a friend whom I wished to join me in the speculation.

The professor consented, with the injunction that I must not reveal the secret of their manufacture, and that I should be very cautious about exciting the suspicion of any outsider as to their artificial character. "We must be very careful," said he, "not to let the dealers know that the stones are not dug from the ground, like all others in the market. They are in every respect the same, but the question of demand and supply tells more readily on precious stones than on anything else that men deal in."

Next morning I jumped into an omnibus and rode down town. I went to a lapidary on John Street, with whom I had a slight acquaintance, and at once showed him my sapphires. He looked at them just an instant, and asked what I wanted to know about them. I asked what he called those stones.

"Well," he replied, with a smile, "they are very good imitations of sapphires."

"Imitations!"

"Yes, imitations; I ought to know, for I made them my. self."

A gigantic flea at that instant-a flea as large as an elephant — entered my right ear, and jumped about like a schoolboy exercising across a gutter. The lapidary continued, that he made the stones to order, and three others at the same time, about a month before, but declined to tell me for whom they were made. They were made of strass, a fine article of glass, consisting mainly of potash, oxide of lead, borax, and silex. Nearly all artificial gems are made of strass, and the colors are obtained by adding certain oxides while the substance is in a state of fusion. Diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and amethysts, made of strass, may deceive a novice, and even be made so skilfully as to require a careful test before decid ing on their character; but you can no more sell them for genuine to a regular dealer than you can make a butcher buy a poodle under the belief that it is a bull-dog.

I returned the gems to the professor that evening, with the brief explanation that my friend was averse to a specula tion on account of a lack of funds, and that an unexpected development had rendered it impossible for me to invest. He did not press for an explanation, and we separated with mutual regrets.

Another time a man who had been for several years on the Pacific coast came to New York, and lived a month or two at my hotel, without any appearance of business. I formed an acquaintance with him one day at the table, and found that he was a good talker, and well informed on mining matters. Our acquaintance ran on a week or so, and one day he invited